Music and people hold my life together. I describe experiences, discoveries and insights, often connected with music and with teaching and playing piano. The blog is a way to stay in touch with friends, and may also be food for thought for anyone else, especially people connected with music and the piano/
Musik und Menschen halten mein Leben zusammen. Ich beschreibe Erfahrungen, Entdeckungen und Einsichten, oft in Zusammenhang mit dem Klavierspiel und dem Klavierunterricht.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

A while ago, I came across an entry in an old journal about a piano lesson I had with Seymour Bernstein years ago. When I arrived at the studio, he was working on a composition. “It’s commissioned by a Music Teacher’s Association for a student piano competition” he said, before he played a section for me. “I’m writing a Fantasy on three Bach Chorales.” The music I got to hear moved me to tears.

“It’s a troubled world,” Seymour commented on the meaning of the piece, “ and you can hear that in the music. But then, there is Bach’s music, a constant, sustaining source of comfort above all the misery that we don’t understand.” I could completely identify with the message.

I remembered Seymour’s music, when I read my journal entry, but after the one time in the studio I never heard of it again. I consulted the list of his works that was included in the Festschrift that Alison Thomas and I complied for his 75th birthday. I checked the publisher’s website, but I couldn’t find a trace of the fantasy anywhere.

“Seymour, what happened to that piece?” I wrote at last. It turned out he had completely forgotten about it. Apparently it wasn’t a big success with the competition, and it was never published. The score was on Seymour’s computer, though. He gave me a copy at my next lesson. My performance found the approval of the composer on Monday, so I have recorded it and uploaded it on youtube.

The piece was composed in 2003, just around the time of the beginning of the American invasion of Iraq. It is impossible to decide whether the world is more, or less troubled today than it was ten, or two hundred years ago. The message of the piece still appropriate.

I wish you all peaceful holidays and all the best for the New Year; confident that music will continue to give us comfort, and inspire us to go into the world and do whatever we can to make it a better place.